Front Porch Venture Partners

On a panel a few weeks back, a great question asked by someone in the audience was:?“in such a crazy, fast-changing world, with the news changing every hour, what are examples of things that you believe will ALWAYS be true?”?(Gulp — deep! But great). We got a similar version related to AI the next week, so Greggory, Nikin, and I jotted some thoughts down. (We went deep with this one and Nikin's everlasting great hair was left on the cutting room floor in the post). A big thanks to the person who asked this question a few weeks back! You’ve lived rent-free on the collective Front Porch for a good long time now and we hope this is useful. What are the things that you stop and reference in moments of change?

Want to Attract Investors & Scale Your Startup? Here’s What You NEED to Know! In this By Design Podcast episode, we dive deep into venture capital strategies, startup funding mistakes, and how VCs evaluate businesses with Joe Mancini from Front Porch Venture Partners. If you’re an entrepreneur, founder, or business leader, this episode is packed with insider knowledge on what investors look for, how to position your business for funding, and the common mistakes that sink startups before they even get off the ground. ?? What You’ll Learn in This Episode: ?? How VCs Evaluate Startups & Founders – What really matters to investors ?? The Most Common Startup Mistakes & How to Avoid Them ?? How to Build the Right Team to Scale Your Business ?? How Venture Capital Works & What Investors Want to See ?? The Truth About Business Valuations & Raising Capital ?? Why Communication & Transparency Are Key in Startup Success ?? How Founders Can Stand Out & Get Noticed by Investors ?? Resources & Links: YouTube: https://lnkd.in/e_tGpETn ?? Connect with Joe Mancini & Front Porch Ventures: https://lnkd.in/eSqquZ5B ?? Take Your Free DISC Personality Assessment: https://lnkd.in/e5xY6hZp Website: https://lnkd.in/eBzi7apX Book A Call: https://lnkd.in/ee_Sik8k ?? Don’t forget to LIKE, COMMENT & SUBSCRIBE for more expert insights on startups, leadership, and venture capital! ?? #StartupFunding #VentureCapital #Entrepreneurship #StartupSuccess #BusinessGrowth #Fundraising #HowToRaiseCapital #InvestorMindset #ByDesignPodcast #JoeMancini

?? Meet the powerhouse investors behind Seed The South Capital Summit’s Big Pitch! Our Investor Selection Committee—comprised of some of the Southeast’s top tech investors—will be hard at work reviewing applications and selecting the 10 finalists who will take the stage at this year’s Big Pitch. Their expertise, insight, and commitment to early-stage founders help make this event a launchpad for Charlotte’s next big success stories. A huge thank you to this incredible group: ?? Mark McDowell | Ashley Gautreaux | Brandon Shelton ?? Kathryn Watts Burlingame | Lister Delgado | David Jones ?? Joe Mancini | Tobias Walter | Greg Brown ?? Christopher Langford | Nikin Shah | Matt Dunbar ?? Brittani Roberts | Steve Hasty We can’t wait to see who they select! Who will take the stage? Stay tuned! ?? #SeedTheSouth #BigPitch #TechInvestors #CLTstartups #VC #AngelInvesting

Excited for a busy next few weeks! Here's where we will be -- let us know if you'll be around, too: -- TODAY (March 20) in Winston-Salem at Winston Starts -- Next week in Raleigh with CED (Center for Entrepreneurial Development) -- Week of April 7 in the Triangle for Raleigh-Durham Startup Week -- (Also!) April 8 in BHM with Alabama Capital Network -- (Also!) April 9 in CLT for Pitch Breakfast with Innovate Charlotte -- Week of April 14 in ATL for a variety of fun(d) things -- Week of April 21 in BNA at SE Venture Showcase with Stephen + Cameron -- Week of April 28 likely Charleston and Atlanta with funds and founders Thankfully Delta Air Lines is keeping those fares low! cc: Joe + Nikin + Greggory

And not just Silicon Valley! We see this elsewhere, too - AI Native founders and founding teams are going to massively disrupt early stage venture for the better.

Quick thanks before LinkedIn hits the weekend to our friends at SCRA: South Carolina Research Authority and NextGEN for their hospitality hosting a few days of great investor and startup meetings in #StartupGVL this week -- and bonus points for getting the Mayor into dinner for a quick stump speech! cc: Front Porch Venture Partners

Milestone alert: we hit $1,000,000 (+) in new bookings in one month for the first time in February! In characteristic fashion, I took about half a millisecond to celebrate this important milestone for Poppy Flowers, so I'm trying to force myself to appreciate it more. On the way to work this morning, I whipped out my calculator and realized that since March 2021, we've grown bookings 16.6X. and, just for fun, one of our amazing Floral Consultants, Hannah Pattillo, had a dream that we launched a Muppets Collection. Which led Jay Ashe to use Oscar the Grouch in our dev environment ??

Greggory (aka Gregg) on the State of Capital Markets panel at Florida Venture Forum today: “It’s important for founders to understand what they are selling to each party along the way on the investor side… in the early stages, you're selling a dream, right? That shifts over time as you become a more mature company. Down that chain, your next investor is going to be looking at metrics, including capital efficiency, and you've got to evolve the way that you run your business to figure out the most important metrics for the space that you are in and run your business towards them.” Thanks to Kevin and his team and our friends at Topmark Partners for having us - great discussion and a great event so far!

Looking forward to a great few days at the Florida Venture Forum - come say hey!

Greggory (aka Gregg) on opportunities in downturns from our Q1 LP webinar: